JUNE 1863 CIVIL WAR LETTER FROM LEBANON, PA RESIDENT JACOB FORNEY KREPS DURING PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENTAL COMMISSION VISIT TO ROSECRANS' ARMY IN MURPHREESBORO, WITH MENTIONS OF SOLDIER SONS (77TH PA, 15TH PA CAVALRY)

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Item Code: 945-487

FROM J.F. KREBS TO “WIFE & CHILDREN.” Dated “Camp near Murfreesboro / June 8th 1863.” 4 pp. in ink on unlined paper, 8 x 9.75”. Exhibits fold-marks & slight soiling on  lower fold-lines. Else VG & entirely legible. In protective sleeve accompanied by documentation.

In his capacity as Commissioner of Pennsylvania, writes his impressions of Rosecrans’ army. Excellent camp detail.  Excerpts as follows.

“Camp life is becoming somewhat irksome to me although I see something almost everyday that is interesting or exciting…Addy [son Adam, 15th PA Cavalry] was here and spent the afternoon with [son father and sons John and Frank of the 77th PA] and spent the time very pleasantly…

While in town today I seen a lot of prisoners brought to the Provost Marshall’s office…they were a pretty scaly looking set of fellows but unsubdued and full of fight. I talked a little with some of them, and I come to the conclusion that if these fellows have the same  spirit as the others, that nothing but complete victory or the success of our army will subdue them…

The 77th numbers only 490 men all told, a number of them are absent and a great many detailed, so that on drill they do not more than 250 muskets…The Anderson Cavalry [15th PA] are still in very bad condition. The men are much dissatisfied. The colonel conducts himself in an imperious manner and the men despise him…I could bear all this and see my dear boys suffering…but when I knew that the inconvenience is being unnecessarily inflicted on them by an imperious commander, I felt indignant…there is a great deal of tyranny in the army and I suppose there is no other way but to endure it…

I am still of opinion that Gen. Rosecrans is not going to make a forward movement for some time unless the rebels evacuate and I am more convinced of this since my conversation with Gen. Thomas…I think I shall call on him [Gen. Rosecrans] before I leave…I want to know a little more about him personally…”

Fine letter from a Pennsylvania civilian regimental commissioner.

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Born in 1806 in Lebanon, PA, J.F. Kreps established himself in Greencastle as an enterprising farmer and businessman, moving to West Newton/ Rostraver Township. An ardent Union patriot, Kreps raised troops and money, and served as a civilian Pennsylvania regimental commissioner, spending two months in that capacity visiting PA regiments serving with Gen. Rosecrans’ army at Stones River, TN, in late spring/early summer 1863; also visiting PA Army of the Potomac units in 1864.

He also contributed five sons to the Union army—John, Francis, Adam, William and David Dempsey (with John, Francis and Adam serving as officers), in five different regiments, all of whom would survive, though son John would be severely wounded at Liberty Gap, TN, and son Frank, captured at Chickamauga, would spend 14 months in various Confederate prisons before making an heroic and hair-raising escape from Columbia, S.C., in 1864.

The bulk of the letters in this first family grouping (27 letters dating from August 7, 1861 to July 1864) are from J.F. Kreps to son Adam (15th PA Cavalry, 67th Regt. U.S.C.T., 92nd Regt. U.S.C.T. Also letters to son Frank (77th PA Infy) and son George, and six to wife Eliza, most of which were written during J.F. Kreps tour of General Rosecrans’ army. Subsequent groups contain letters home from sons Adam, William, John and David Dempsey. Taken as a whole, the Kreps letters present a valuable and fascinating picture of the coming and goings of an American family at war.   [JP]

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